Editor:
As you probably know, BC Hydro has sent a letter to all customers who have resisted installation of an electro magnetic pulsing meter in their homes.
This letter asks customers to choose between three options, with several choices for the kind of meter you might wish to have in your home. No surprise, the analog meter costs $35 a month, and their smart meter, nothing.
There are a lot of things wrong with this choice scenario.
One is that BC Hydro must submit an application to the BC Utilities Commission to charge extra for analogue meters, and it must be approved. This has not happened. This means that BC Hydro does not have the right to charge you anything extra for an analog meter at this time, unless you sign a form that becomes a legal agreement between you and BC Hydro. Don't sign!
There are legal challenges to this system as yet unresolved. And there are simple options that BC Hydro has not offered to its customers. As customers, living in a democracy, we can ask for them.
Here are a few: Customers can read their own analogue meters and file this information on-line to Hydro, or pay a rate based on annual use and verify usage once a year. For those who had smart meters installed against their wishes, BC Hydro could opt to have transmitters turned off. Customers could do their own readings, e-filing their own information.
Although BC Hydro insists none of the above is possible, if all this can be done in London, England, with eight-million-plus residents, then it can be done here.
Write a letter to BC Hydro, or call and register your wishes. Don't engage, just hold your ground. Be clear with what you want.
Caitlin Hicks, Roberts Creek
